High Interest Murder Trials In Public Eye

The murder trial for Naman Wilcox, 24, one of two local men charged with the rape and murder of a woman at her residence, a house on McDonald Street, in March 2015, is underway at the Ware County Courthouse.
District Attorney George Barnhill said the other defendant, Ryan Christopher Raulerson, 42, pleaded guilty to rape, murder, armed robbery, burglary and other crimes and received three consecutive life sentences plus a “long time in years” in prison.
Barnhill said another high interest murder trial is set to start Friday at 9 a.m. for Leon Pugh, who shot and killed Timothy Williams and shot and wounded Sandra Williams before stuffing her inside the trunk of a car, leaving her for dead after they left work at Captain Joe’s late on March 11, 2015, according to police. Williams was able to escape from the car and has recovered from her wounds.
The jury has already been selected.
While Raulerson was willing to plead, Barnhill said, “Naman Wilcox wanted a trial.”
A jury was selected and the trial began Tuesday in Ware Superior Court. It was scheduled to reconvene at 9 o’clock this morning, Barnhill said.
The two were accused of entering a house on McDonald Street on March 24, 2015, and raping and stabbing to death the 57-year-old occupant, Suzanne Stillwell.
After the woman’s body was discovered, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said search warrants were obtained for three houses, the crime scene house on McDonald Street, a house on Juniper Street in the Ware County jurisdiction and a house on McClure Street, also in the county.
Waycross and Ware County law enforcement officials executed those search warrants and used evidence found to develop the case and took the two men into custody the day after the murder.
They have been behind bars since that time.